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Topic Review (Newest First)

03-11-2013 04:02 AM

Kehy

Well apparently I lied again in my last post. The new lights have been on for about a month, and so far the plants...are doing ok. Not the greatest, but they're alive. If I was that extraordinarily worried about them, I might switch the hood and light from my 5 gallon shrimp tank the the leaky 5. So far though, that hasn't been necessary. The water plants aren't huge fans of it, but they're surviving. The dwarf lily is really showing the most changes, starting to reach for the lights instead of just creeping along low. The L. Aromatics'a growth has been really slow too. I mean for a small bow like this, that's fine, but it's pretty clear they'd appreciate a hair more like.

The pilea was the first to react to the new light, it's growth is pretty much vertical instead of horizontal now. Getting some interesting colors, but I wasn't able to take a good pic of those. The tillies are chugging along slowly, but for the most part, growing. There's a couple I have my doubts about, but I'll keep an eye on them.

Some of the baby shrimp are showing saddles (does that mean I can't call them babies anymore?), and I did keep a couple of the most blue in the bowl to try and get a more intense blue. I'm also adding a blue velvet female, see what happens there.

I rotated the bowl so I could have something new to look at
momma shrimp (and ignore the algae please)
And what happens when Daddy shrimp loves Momma shrimp very much...hahaha. This is one of the babies I moved to the 5, it's pretty easy to pick them out from the rest of the regular shrimp. I love how much they break up the regular red shrimpy-ness of the tank

02-16-2013 12:28 AM

Kehy

more to come soon!

02-09-2013 07:16 PM

GreenBliss

That looks great. I love reading the updates.

02-09-2013 08:02 AM

Kehy

Nothing quite like late night rescaping! I have to admit, I really like how clean and simple it is to rescape the land portion of the tank. No mess, no fuss, just rearranging rocks at half past midnight. Think I might get some more rocks from the yard though, it doesn't quite feel complete yet...

I actually did the rescaping last weekend, and the pilea seems to approve. It's not quite as out of control as it was in the last setup, but it's growing like a weed. The sea of green it's creating does look pretty nice though, easiest carpeting plant ever, hahaha. I took a few pics of the planters out of the tank while I was rescaping and watering them. The hanging planter works pretty well, but drains water extremely quickly, so I have to do something to keep water in there long enough for the soil to absorb some water.

The tillandsias seem to be doing well, although I'm fairly certain that some from the first shipment I received are dying. They never quite seemed as healthy as the second shipment, but I've thought about replacing them...probably not for awhile. I bought a special surprise for this tank. It was a bit...expensive. The whole setup though has still cost less than $100...barely.

In aqualand, things are going well. Plants are growing, shrimp are growing, and some babies are distinctly more blueish than the regular red rili babies I have. Wonder how things will react to the new lighting I'm getting.
Oh? Did I not mention that's what I got? Silly me. http://www.wave-point.com/Lighting_f...lampLight.html I got the 12", 6 watt version. I thought about doing the high output lights, but I couldn't find the 12" 6700k version at a reasonable price. Also, I don't know if my tank could handle that...Hope it works!

watering the pilea, notice the hanging planter
The rescaped tank

01-30-2013 09:10 AM

Kehy

Just a quick update. I've been somewhat neglecting the land part of the terrarium, but I've noticed a great surprise. One of the tillandsias went into blush, meaning it's gaining a lot of colors and will hopefully bloom soon. Not only is it really nice to look at, it also made me realize there isn't any single focal point in the tank. Nothing brightly colored to stand out from the mass of green...Also the tilly that was blooming when I first got it (one in the second shipment) is just beginning to grow a pup! At the moment it's too small to show well, but I'm being really pleasantly surprised at how fast these plants grow and change.

Speaking of growth, that pilea is already growing fast! I'm running out of places to put my tillies that won't shade the pilea, but also keep them away from the moisture in the pots. I'm considering adding a nice large piece of wood or two, if I can find some that would work. I want to add add more mounting places, and also have a piece coming out of/going into the water to tie everything together. Thoughts?

In the aquatic side I'm getting great growth from the plants, and the dwarf sag is growing very long. I do rather like the look though, I'm after something similar to Newman's shrimp bowl. I pulled out 25 babies over the weekend, plus the uncle shrimp, and really I think there's at least 10-15 more babies in there. I think pulling them out is going to help everyone be a bit happier. I moved the babies to the other 5 gallon, where they seem to be doing well. I did notice that a couple of the babies did have a blueish tint to them...hmm...am I already be seeing an effect of the selective breeding after just one generation? (or maybe I'm blind and crazy, hahaha)
Sorry for the dirty glass, but you can see the difference from last week
shrimp being moved out

01-23-2013 02:58 PM

Silmarwen

The hanging planter is so clever! I doubt it will be noticeable when everything fills in.

01-22-2013 10:36 PM

Kehy

Here's a look at the hanging planter, made it from a clear pop bottle (and fire). I'm hoping that the pilea will grow downwards enough to hide the planter. A little bit ugly, but I hadn't tried anything like this before

01-22-2013 10:31 PM

Kehy

lol thanks, I'm behind getting pics up. Oh, and momma shrimp is berried again! But I really should have taken out the red male before she got berried...oh well. The babies are all growing well, very colorful. I think I'll have to start moving some out soon.

In other news, this new plant is probably too big, oop! (but it was only $2.50!)

01-22-2013 06:30 PM

Silmarwen

I adore this idea!! It's turning out so cool

01-20-2013 01:42 AM

Kehy

Well I suck at that waiting for advice thing. I'm actually planning on using the pilea in two different ways, I hope it turns out. I would've loved to had grabbed one with smaller leaves, but it was $2.50 at the store and just begging for a new home...and the only one there...

01-19-2013 08:47 PM

Kehy

It's been a couple weeks, and everything seems to be growing well. The babies are already very colored, all red. It may take a couple more generations to bring out the blue...or I could cross them with blue velvets, hahaha.
One the land side, one of my Tillandsia Ionanthas is starting to grow a pup, it's adorable. I think it's the Druid variety? Either way it seems to be growing fast. I dechlorinate the water with Prime, and then add a drop or two of Flourish Complete. Compared to fertilizers for land plants, aquatic ferts are very mild, and the tillies seem to love it. I soak them for 12 hours, once a week. They need to completely dry out within 4 hours of soaking. Overall, a pretty sweet plant for a low maintenance setup like this. I am considering adding some kind of a vine or creeping plant to take the place of the thyme, which is entirely dead...I was thinking a pilea of some sort, thoughts?
(it's a lot brighter than it looks, I promise!)
One of the babies looking off into space...I wonder what the shrimp think of all this?

01-02-2013 11:04 PM

Kehy

I just found out that my berried mama gave birth! Looks like red babies, but we'll see how they grow. Just wish I'd seen them before I did a gravel vac and water change...

01-01-2013 06:30 AM

MABJ

Very nice. Looks like all plants are making some healthy growth.

01-01-2013 03:04 AM

Kehy

I'm baaaaack!
Things are actually looking pretty good, even though I had to move every tank in my apartment yesterday. I came back to a berried mamma shrimp in the bowl, yay! Since she was a fairly nice rili, I moved her back to my shrimp tank, and replaced her with a very odd pair of "red" rilis. (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=203286) The bowl seems to be doing well, the BGA was remarkably more controlled than I thought it would be. Tried to get rid of more of it, and added a spare dwarf lilly and a couple pieces of dwarf sag. Looks ok, but the water is still murky. I'll either leave the bowl alone and let the nice growth I'm seeing continue...or do very frequent water changes to clean it up a bit.

Land wise, I got things sorted out from moving the tank, where it is, it's now visible from 3 sides. Noticed that a couple of my tillies are having pups, yay! At least I haven't killed them! Woo! The thyme and the hen and chicks miiiight not make it though, they're looking pretty rough right now

And ignore the green stone, I didn't know where else to put it while I was moving furniture.

12-15-2012 04:28 PM

MABJ

This is pretty neat. Kudos for making something very unique.

MABJ's iDevice used for this message :p

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